Tamura Jones' Tweet

Saw a retweet on twitter from Find A Grave,  the original tweet was from Tamura Jones "#genealogy Genealogy without proof is Mythology: attributing an aphorism on source http://www.tamurajones.net/GenealogyWithoutProofIsMythology.xhtml  Which led me to a very interesting article and inspired me to blog about the mythology some use as Genealogy.  The article written by Tamura Jones deals with the hunt to find who first coined the term "Genealogy without proof is Mythology" and it's various forms used in our popular culture. Trying to find the source of a well used and preached phrase must have been a fun hunt for Mr. Jones.  His article was fascinating to say the least, and I encourage all to read the article at http://www.tamurajones.net.  We as a group love to use phrases, to make some one remember to source or to check a source.   Mr. Jones writes a very detailed article on how this phrase and it's variation have developed in our popular culture, and there origin. Thanks to the internet a phrase or a term can spread like wildfire, in our modern world. In reading his article I started thinking, if a phrase can grow so quickly in our popular culture, and be used so readily, without being attributed to anyone; how does this effect genealogy.   Would we add a ancestor to our tree so easily as we pick up and use a phrase without a known  source.  No!!  But, we do all the time, because that is the nature of our society, we like quick answers to our research. I like to call it ADHD or fast food mentality; we jump from one idea or source to the next, and most could careless if the source is cited or has any documentation to back it up. They want to fill up that virtual tree as fast as they possible can.  The instant fix can be seen in our news, in our child rearing and even in our collective attention spans.  We are so used to instant results; old fashion research , has given way to those little leaves on Ancestry.com, which has become the nature of the beast. Mr. Jones in his research took the time to research the originator of the phrase, which led him to his best suspect Mary L. Henke.  One may wonder why knowing who coined a term is so important and it evolution in popular society.  I see it as important in that if a phrase can spread so quickly and the originator forgotten so readily; does this mean that someday soon all those genealogy trees without sources, will crowd out the little sourced and researched trees of the world. Just because something is written of paper or stored on a thumb drive does not make it genealogy.  Genealogy does take proof, and documentation.    Thank you Mr. Jones for a most interesting article, and inspiring me to think!




I  also learned another valuable lesson to watch what you are clicking on and make sure you are ready to post or tweet, and not just posting thoughts for a later post, and idea for a later post.